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Religions of Lviv


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Lviv is a city of religious variety and there have been conflicts between different faiths. At one point over 60 churches existed in the city. The largest Christian churches have existed in the city since the 13th century. There are three major Christian groups: The Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv, the Roman Catholics, and the Armenian Church. Each have had a diocesan seat in Lviv since the 16th century. The Golden Rose Synagogue was built in Lviv in 1582. At the end of the 16th century the Orthodox community in Ukraine transferred their allegiance to the Pope in Rome and became the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This bond was forcibly dissolved in 1946 by the Soviet authorities and the Roman Catholic community was forced out by the expulsion of the Polish population. Since 1989, religious life in Lviv has experienced a revival.

Lviv is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv, the centre of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine and until 21 August 2005 was the centre of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. About 35 per cent of religious buildings belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 11.5 per cent to the Ukrainian Auto cephalous Orthodox Church, 9 per cent to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church � Kiev Patriarchate and 6 per cent to the Roman Catholic Church.

Until 2005 Lviv was the only city with two Catholic Cardinals: Lubomyr Husar (Byzantine Rite) and Marian Jaworski (Latin Rite).

In June 2001 Pope John Paul II visited the Latin Cathedral, St. George's Cathedral and the Armenian Cathedral.

Lviv historically had a large and active Jewish community and until 1941 at least 45 synagogues and prayer houses existed. Even in the 16th century two separate communities existed. One lived in today's old town with the other in the Krakowskie Przedmie?cie. In the 19th century a more differentiated community started to spread out. Liberal Jews sought more cultural assimilation and spoke German and Polish. On the other hand
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